Board of Directors

Board of Directors

Kari Kennedy

Vice President

Kari Kennedy, an expert in business development, is the Client Experience Manager of Opus Bank in Mount Vernon. Prior to working at Opus Bank, Kari’s career in financial advising and business development was built through management of branches at Columbia Bank, KeyBank and Bank of America.

As a trusted financial advisor in Skagit County for the last 14 years, Kari Kennedy has developed numerous relationships with business owners, community members and associations. As a certified financial instructor, Kari spends time educating Skagit’s youth through Junior Achievement, working with the Skagit Asset Building Coalition’s vision of a financial empowerment center, Washington State’s Bank On-North Sound assisting the under-banked, Skagit Home Trust for affordable home purchases, and SWAN.

Kari obtained her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a focus in Finance while working full-time. Kari graduated in 2011 from the University of Phoenix’s online campus. Working full-time, going to college, being a mom and wife is a challenging journey. Kari chose to join SWAN to empower more young women to achieve educational, financial, and professional success.

Lynn Christofersen

Secretary

Lynn is secretary of Home Trust of Skagit’s board of directors. Lynn serves at Community Services Division Director at Community Action of Skagit County. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Vocational Rehabilitation with an emphasis in secondary Special Education. Her position includes oversight over Housing Programs and she has played a nurturing role in the birth of HTS. Over the past year she attended the NW Community Land Trust Institute trainings. Lynn has worked in the private and public sector and believes that home ownership plays a significant role in building strong stable communities.

Becki Bell

Treasurer

Becki is the treasurer on the Home Trust of Skagit board of directors. She has worked in the banking industry for for nearly 15 years and currently works for Washington Federal. Becki is married and has three children and two grandchildren. She enjoys running and has run in 13 half marathons.

Kent Haberly

Past President

Kent is the past president of Home Trust’s Board of Directors. He is a partner in Puget Sound Investors LLC, a real estate lending and investment management firm based in Mount Vernon. He is a graduate of Washington State University and Seattle University School of Law. He has been involved in the development of several affordable housing projects in Skagit County. He has served on the Board of Directors and as President of Salem Village, and as a board member and president of other local organizations, including Skagit-Mount Vernon Kiwanis and the Skagit Valley YMCA. Kent and his wife Gretchen, have resided in Mount Vernon since 1973.

Vanessa Allen

Board Member

Vanessa Allen has served on the Board of Directors since November 2016 as a homeowner representative. Vanessa lives with her husband Eli and their two children in a community land trust home in the Skagit Highlands neighborhood of Mount Vernon. Vanessa is an instructional technology administrator at the Mount Vernon campus of Skagit Valley College’s eLearning program. She serves on the board as a way to promote the community land trust model and to help others be able to purchase a home in the community as she has done.

Jeff Mount

Board Member

"I have lived in Anacortes since moving from Ohio in 2015, after retiring from a career in logistics. Besides Skagit Home Trust, I am a member of the Planning Commission for the City of Anacortes, and do volunteer work for Community Action and the Lincoln Theater. I graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in Economics."

A homeless crisis of unprecedented proportions is rocking the West Coast, and its victims are being left behind by the very things that mark the region's success: soaring housing costs, rock-bottom vacancy rates and a roaring economy that waits for no one.